If there's one thing I've come to appreciate about full-priced flights, it is the food.
I didn't use to think so much about it before.
But now, after having had a couple of flights where I'm told explicitly- over the intercom- that "outside food are not permitted/allowed on this flight", and where I've had to sneak in bites of cookie or scone (when the cabin crew's not walking around), I've come to appreciate a tray on my table a lot more.
Doesn't matter if all that the tray's holding is a cold chicken sandwich, a fruit cup, a chocolate muffin and a cookie.
It's good enough for me.
What's also good enough are the blankets they provide on Cathay Pacific.
Those blankets make for a very cozy red eye flight.
We arrived Hong Kong on time- 6am thereabouts- and after having cleared immigration, decided we'd take a taxi to Causeway Bay rather than the recommended Airport Express.
I'm not sure if taxis in Hong Kong have comparative pricing to other forms of transport, but whatever the price it was it seemed quite worth, especially since we soon found ourselves traveling upon the iconic Tsing Ma Bridge and later across two cross-harbor tunnels.
I had expected the usual downtown morning peak hour traffic jams, but nope, all was good and we got to the Holiday Inn Express Causeway Bay Hotel with more than enough time to catch the breakfast hour.
Here, however I must admit, I got a little surprised.
Perhaps I've been spoilt by the buffet-style breakfasts offered by other Holiday Inn Express properties.
And I'd assumed that this'd be the same.
But, no, they were quite different.
Not only was the breakfast place not the typical cafe style- it was quite a Chinese restaurant type- after handing in our coupons we were politely directed to two seats at a round table and shown the menu.
I'm not complaining.
Food is food is food.
And glad I was that the food was sincere, wholesome and full.
They didn't compromise on standards.
Neither did they compromise on quantity.
I liked my bowl of century egg pork porridge.
My friend found his plate of American-style meal with toast just as good too.
We were, however, still a little hungry, so out it was to Hysan Place at Causeway Bay for dim sum at a place called King's Dim Sum.
By right it would have been easy to find, but poor lost tourists that we were, found ourselves wandering up and down that section of street couple of times before realizing that the place was right in front of us.
This morning we decided to order a couple of dishes.
So we chose a little bamboo basket of steamed (handmade?) meat balls, a basket of char siew paus, a basket of very solid siew mais, a basket of xiao long baos and a plate of deep fried spring rolls that were the skinniest I'd ever seen.
Didn't matter- they were fresh, the skin was crispy and crunchy, and their size actually made for a very, very easy bite.
We checked in after we got back to the hotel, and right away I found myself being charmed by the room.
No, it wasn't because that the room was luxurious or filled with comfortable, sink-in furniture, but it was that the decor was neat, functional, and the lay of the room giving off a very faint clue as to what this space once might have been.
There was a lot of wood.
A lot a lot of wood.
But it made the place look familiar, quaint even, and, somehow, the way they'd done the place made it look quintessentially Hong Kong.
A huge room it was not, but there were interesting corners, the bathroom had a sort of permanent ventilation shutter in-built into the wall, and as functional as the room was, unique it was, in particular, her view.
How many places are there in this world where out of your hotel window in Causeway Bay do you get a view that spans a road, a highway, a shopping mall, and an estate that looks like (public housing style) residential homes?
If there are, I haven't been to many but Hong Kong is one of the few where the cityscape's so distinctive it's impossible to ignore.
It isn't just the cityscape that the S.A.R is however known for.
There's also the food.
And we were not intending to waste any time, so back out it was to Hennessy Road for lunch at well-known 1-Michelin star restaurant Kam's Roast Goose.
Honestly I don't remember how we got to the Wanchai area.
I think we walked.
What route it was we took, don't ask me, one of us had Google Maps in hand, the other simply followed.
But we got there- in time for the lunch hour- and glad I was to see that the queue outside the restaurant wasn't too long- a few pairs, a group of threes. I got a queue number (they aren't kidding when they say locals are efficient even speech-wise) and went back to join the queue outside.
Ten, fifteen minutes thereabouts, our number was called and were shown a table right next to the counter.
The menu at Kam's Roast Goose is extensive, but not complicated.
They're known for their Roast Suckling Pig, their Roast Pork Ribs, their Crispy Roast Pork, their Soya Chicken, Char Siew and of course, their signature Roast Goose.
If you're not in the mood for a platter, they've got the rice plates and the noodle plates too.
We weren't here for rice or noodles, however, so we got a plate of Crispy Roast Pork, and a plate Half Roast Goose.
Which, by the way, were of such huge portions it was a relief that I was rather hungry.
I wish I had a way to describe just how good the Roast Goose was.
But with me not being the type who can expound on descriptions of a gastronomical nature, can I simply say that the flavors were excellent, that the skin was crisp, that the layer of fat underneath the skin made each bite simply melt away in my mouth?
If you know how roast duck tastes, well, this is, maybe, two, three times better?
It might be that geese naturally have more fat than their duck counterparts, but I thought the flavors of this goose richer and more rounded on the palate. You know how some (red) meats tend to give off that kind of smoky feel that fills your whole mouth at first bite?
Yep, that's what this roast goose felt like.
A hint of burnt smokiness (from the roast), the fat and oil melting away together, followed by the crisp crunch of the skin's texture, then the tender chew of the meat.
All at the same time.
In one single bite.
The Crispy Roast Pork was just as good.
Yes, the flavors were familiar- one doesn't normally go too far off when it comes to siew yok on its own- but few are the places where I've had the skin of the siew yok achieve such perfect crunch and crisp.
Kam's Roast Goose gave that to me.
Best part of this siew yok I liked was that the fat didn't give me any strong pork aftertaste in the mouth.
It takes skill and speed, I suppose, to be able to control the fire and gauge the timing before it gets overcooked, undercooked, or limpid altogether.
I really enjoyed this meal.
And in hindsight, thankful I am too that there were only several groups in front of us when we arrived. Others have had to stand in line behind a queue of 30.
Lunch being over, we walked back to Causeway Bay.
In the evening we headed out to Hysan Place, first crossing through Percival Street then Lee Garden Street. From there we crossed Hennessy Road across to SOGO Causeway Bay, then a left along Lockhart Road, then back onto Percival Street before coming out to somewhere near the Sino Plaza.
Across the overhead bridge we went, crossing Victoria Park Road towards the building that is the Police Officers' Club. Along the water we strolled- I honestly don't know what the name of this harbor is, but it houses the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, there's a Shun Kee Typhoon Shelter somewhere along it and right at the curve there's the Causeway Bay Zone Substation.
We walked until we were near the substation, then because there didn't seem to be any route further on, decided to turn back.
Anyway we needed dinner.
Which we had, at Itacho Sushi, back at Causeway Bay in this shopping center called LaForet located between World Trade Center and SOGO.
It wasn't one of those bright, bright glittery kind of shopping centers, but it looked like it had been there a while, and some of the shops looked like they appealed to the locals living in the area.
What's funny is that we hadn't intended on Itacho.
We'd just found it somehow.
But I'm glad we did.
When you get to have chilled Sea Urchin that comes served with Ikura in a cute little cup, when you get to have their signature Roasted Salmon Belly Sushi (that somehow looked less reddish than what I'm used to), when you get to have tuna sushi (at a great price), and lovely chilled slices of their salmon belly sashimi, YES, you be glad.
You be very, very thankful.
And you be glad.